


the deepest secret nobody knows

by tinyjet7



Series: higher than soul can hope [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Sanji, Kid Zoro, Minor Violence, Post-Wano Arc (One Piece), Post-Whole Cake Island, zoro and sanji being friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:13:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26363998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyjet7/pseuds/tinyjet7
Summary: The Straw Hat Pirates run into a bounty hunter with an unusual Devil Fruit power, leaving both Zoro and Sanji stuck as children on the Thousand Sunny.
Series: higher than soul can hope [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943023
Comments: 5
Kudos: 200





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e.e. cummings**
> 
> here is the deepest secret nobody knows  
>  (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud  
>  and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows  
>  higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)  
>  and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
> 
> i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

“Now run this by me again,” Nami sighs.

“The Skip-Skip Fruit makes a person skip forward or backward in time,” the man, a bounty-hunter, says. He’s tied securely with several ropes, sitting in the shade of Nami’s tangerine grove. Most of the crew towers over him, ready to overpower him again if need be. “I have to touch their skin for it to work, though.”

“And how did we end up here?” she asks. Her voice only trembles a little, exhaustion and stress from their already long day catching up with her. Usopp shrugs.

“Zoro got into a fight in town. Sanji saw what happened and went to help.” The crew turns, as one, to peer down at the lower deck, where the two in question lay sleeping on the grass.

“And this idiot,” she kicks the man a little, for good measure, “saw our idiot, a man whose bounty is over three hundred million berries, and thought, ‘I could take that guy in a fight’?”

“You’re a funny guy,” Luffy tells him with a laugh. “So how do we fix it?”

“You don’t,” the bounty hunter says sheepishly. “You’ve gotta wait it out.”

“And how long will that take?” Robin asks with a serene smile at odds with the dark, angry look in her eyes.

“Shouldn’t be more than two days,” he says, voice rising nervously. The crew shifts uncomfortably. To be down two of their strongest fighters for two days could be dangerous in the new world, even with the addition of a former warlord to their crew.

“So what should we do?” Brook asks.

“Well, if he can’t help us, we don’t need him anymore,” Luffy shrugs. “I wanna go to the next island already.”

“I’ll take care of him, then,” Robin offers, nodding at the man. The bounty hunter gulps. With a gentle gesture, the man is rolled gently along the ground by a pathway of hands, careful to pull only at the ropes and his clothes as she follows. Nami watches her go before shooting a nervous look at Brook.

“Could you go with her and make sure she doesn’t kill that guy?” Brook nods and jogs after Robin. Nami takes a look at the rest of the crew. “Well, if you wanna get going, we need to get the supplies stowed. Franky and Jinbei are still patching up that hole, so you and Usopp get everything else set.”

“I’ll keep an eye on Sanji and Zoro,” Chopper offers. “I wanted to do a quick physical anyways, in case there’s anything else wrong.”

“Thanks,” Nami says. “I’ll go start charting a course to the next island.”

* * *

It takes 45 minutes for Chopper to finish examining the boys, by which point the Thousand Sunny is nearly ready to make her way out of port.

“They’re perfectly healthy, as far as I can tell,” Chopper tells Nami and Robin. 

Luffy and Usopp were putting the rest of the food supplies away, with Brook watching Luffy to make sure he wasn’t sneaking any snacks. Franky was stowing the rest of his emergency repair supplies in the brig. They’d decided to keep an extra watch while Sanji and Zoro were still little, so Jinbei was up in the crow’s nest.

Chopper sighs. “I don’t know why they won’t wake up. There’s no sign of external or internal injuries, and their vitals are within a normal range. It’s like they’ve just gone to sleep.”

“Perhaps their bodies are recovering from the shock of the change,” Robin suggests. Chopper nods sagely. “Or perhaps they’ll never wake up.”

Before Nami or Chopper could respond to that, however, there’s a shout from the other side of the deck.

“Who the hell are you?” Zoro shouts. He raises his hands, little fists in his best approximation of a fighting stance. A few feet away, Brook is backing off, his own hands raised in a placating gesture. “What the hell are you?”

“It’s okay, I’m a friend,” Brook tries. He takes another step closer, but Zoro backs away, his back coming up against the railing. “Please, that isn’t safe—”

Luckily, Sanji chooses that moment to wake up as well.

“What’s going on?” he asks. He reaches up to his face, pausing to examine his hand before he scrubs at his eyes. “Where am I?”

Zoro glances over and immediately jumps to put himself between Sanji and Brook. Without taking his eyes off of Brook, he whispers down to Sanji, “We’re being kidnapped. Can you fight?”

“No,” Sanji whispers back, but he scrambles to his feet anyways, standing side-by-side with Zoro and settling a little more comfortably into a fighting stance.

“Oh! Zoro, Sanji, you woke up!” Luffy cries, coming out of the galley with Usopp on his tail. Both boys look up sharply at their names. “What are you fighting Brook for?”

“Who are you?” Zoro asks instead of answering. “How do you know our names.

“That’s Luffy, our captain,” Nami says. She smiles brightly at him. “You probably don’t remember us, but we’re your friends.”

“I don’t remember having any friends like you,” Zoro snarls at her. “I don’t know what you want from us, but you better take us back home!”

“Why do you know our names?” Sanji asks. “How did we get here?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Nami asks. Sanji shakes his head.

“I was… home.” He says. He doesn’t elaborate. “And then I woke up here.”

“Zoro?” The boy doesn’t answer. He’s gaping in the direction of the galley. His fists drop to his sides, and that’s when Nami sees it. Zoro’s three swords lean against the wall, next to the galley door.

Zoro pushes past Brook and Luffy and picks one up. He cradles it to his chest.

“Why is this here?” he asks hoarsely. “Why do you have the Wado Ichimonji? Where’s Kuina?”

“You had it with you,” Robin says gently, approaching from the other side of the deck. “Will you listen?”

He twitches, pulling the sword impossibly closer. It takes a moment, and then he nods.

“You’re pirates!” Luffy says, grinning. He puts his hands on his hips. “I’m your captain, and this is our ship, the Thousand Sunny!”

“No way. I’d never be a pirate,” Zoro insists.

“Sorry, Zoro,” Usopp grins.

“I saved Zoro from the Marines,” Luffy says. “And I saved Sanji from a restaurant!”

“How do you save someone from a restaurant?” Zoro asks, skeptical.

“You didn’t save him, he chose to come with us,” Nami sighs. “Sanji was cooking at the Baratie in the East Blue. Remember? That one-legged cook-pirate asked us to take him with us.”

“You’re an adult,” Robin tells him. Zoro frowns at her. “Right now, you’re a child, but you’re meant to be older. Both of you. There was a fight, and you were both transformed. Usopp, our sniper, picked them up when we brought you back to the ship.”

The crew is silent for a moment, letting the children process that. When the moment seems to drag on a little too long, Usopp claps his hands nervously. “I think it’s time to get these boys something to eat. It’s way past lunch and our cook isn’t here, so I guess it’s up to me to provide!”

“Oh, I can do that!” Sanji chirps before slapping a hand over his mouth. Everyone looks down at him. He brings a hand up to fiddle nervously with his hair as he says quietly, “I mean, I know how to cook. I could— I could make something. Since your cook isn’t here.”

Usopp grins down at him. “How about we make something together? It’ll be hard if you don’t know what we have or where anything is, so you’ll need some help. Come on, Zoro!”

Usopp takes both boys by the hand and leads them into the galley. Once the door shuts behind them, Nami grabs Luffy by the shirt.

“Who is Kuina?” she hisses. Luffy shrugs.

“Zoro’s never mentioned Kuina before,” he says lowly. “But he’s had the Wado for longer than he’s been with us. If it belonged to her, it must be important.

In the kitchen, Usopp set Sanji to peeling vegetables for stew while he chops. He can’t seem to draw Zoro into conversation, however. The boy sits at the table, sword in his lap, absently running his fingers along the sheath.

Sanji, on the other hand, is nearly sparkling with joy at being in the kitchen. They had to find a crate for him to stand on, but he happily took to peeling. He hums tunelessly, smiling until he nicks his finger when the knife slips from his hand.

“Oh, what’s this?” Usopp says loudly and dramatically. Sanji turns quickly, hiding his hand behind his back. “First Mate Sanji, have you been wounded?”

“It’s nothing,” Sanji shouts immediately. “I just scratched myself is all. I’m okay. I can still cook.”

“You should take care of that, it might get infected,” Zoro mumbles, not looking up. It’s the first thing he’s said since they entered the galley twenty minutes ago.

“But— you’ll still let me cook, right?” Sanji asks. He waits for Usopp to nod before revealing his finger. The cut is long but not deep. “It really isn’t bad, I get hurt worse all the time.”

“What? No way, a little guy like you?” Usopp teases. Sanji wilts. Usopp frowns, reaching into one of the cabinets to pull out a small first aid kit. “You get hurt worse than this? Often?”

He begins to clean and bandage Sanji’s finger. In his most serious voice, he continues, “I’ve seen many things in th eline of duty. I have faced many dangers. I’ve wrestled a giant octopus out of the ocean and onto the deck for lunch. I’ve shot sea kings for dinner. I once stalked a tiger through the desert to save a fair maiden. Never have I seen a worse wound!”

He finishes bandaging with a wink. Sanji giggles. “There aren’t tigers in the desert.”

“That’s what you think!” he says. He cleans the knife off in the sink before handing it back to Sanji. “A tiger— no, three tigers, stalking a helpless girl through the cold desert nights. It took me three days to finally kill them. There was even a feast after, because it turns out that the girl was a princess! She thanked me and the crew for saving her from the tigers, who were actually suitors, trying to marry her for her kingdom.”

“How did you catch them?” Zoro asks. He’s looking up, interested now. Usopp grins.

“Usopp the Great is a master hunter, you know. I spent a week following their tracks through the desert, but the wind kept blowing the trail away.”

“I thought you said three days,” Zoro smirks. He leans forward to rest his chin on his hands, waiting for an explanation.

“Well, yes, but I had to find them before I could kill them,” Usopp retorts. He takes the bowl full of chopped vegetables and rinses them before dumping everything into the pot on the stove. The whole thing sizzles. “So, a week to find them, and three days to kill them.”

“What did they want her kingdom for?” Sanji asks, his eyes wide. “Were the suitors trying to conquer her kingdom? Did they want her armies?”

“They didn’t want to fight,” Usopp says. “They wanted the land behind the castle.”

“Sounds dumb,” Zoro mutters.

“Well, you see, the land behind the castle was the only place in the entire country were bananas grow.” Usopp adds broth and covers the pot, turning the heat down to let it simmer. He and Sanji wash their hands in the sink as he continues, “Not only were they the only bananas in the country, but the tigers wanted to sell them and get rich. But the bananas belonged to the princess’ dear, long-passed mother, so of course she didn’t want to let them sell it.”

“So you saved her and the bananas,” Sanji says happily. “You’re like a knight, Usopp!”

“It’s funny you should say that,” Usopp says, They did try to knight us, but we’re fearsome pirates! We couldn’t be tied down to a single country, so we had to run.”

Usopp glances over at the clock. “Okay, the stew has to cook, and I’ve gotta go check on my garden. You guys good on your own?”

The boys nod. Usopp bites his lip, uncertain if he should leave them. But Sanji just slides into a chair across from Zoro. He thinks, they’re old enough to watch themselves. He grabs a pack of cards out of a drawer and tosses it on the table.

“Stay out of trouble and stir the pot every so often” he says. The boys nod. “The ship isn’t big, so you should be able to find someone if you need something. Just shout.”

He tries to put the worry out of his mind. They only have two days with them as kids, and Usopp is pretty sure Sanji has never relaxed a day in his life. Zoro is a little more carefree, but after all the time he’s spent saving their asses, he deserves a little free time, too. The rest of them could pick up the slack for a couple days.

Before long, it’s dinner time. He calls for the rest of the crew and they all head into the galley. Sanji and Zoro are still sitting at the table, with Zoro trying to explain some convoluted card game.

Luffy is as loud and boisterous as ever, running straight for the pot and trying to steal the entire loaf of bread Sanji had made earlier in the day, before they’d gone out. The rest of the crew puts up token protests, but it feels different without an adult Sanji there to yell at him for it.

Eventually, they all make it to the table, cleared of cards, with steaming bowls of soup and thick crusts of bread. One by one, they all take a bite, except for Sanji, who watches everyone with a huge smile on his face.

“How is it?” he asks eagerly. 

“It’s great! Did you make this, Sanji?” Luffy asks, matching his grin through a mouthful of stew.

“I helped Usopp!” he says. The crew, minus Sanji, Luffy and Zoro, look at Usopp, who feels himself beginning to sweat.

“Did, uh— Did you happen to add something while I was gone, Sanji?” Usopp asks meekly.

“Yes! I tasted it while you were gone and it was too salty. So I added some sugar!”

“Thank you, Sanji, for helping with the meal,” Nami says, hiding her grimace. It was more than just ‘some’ sugar; she wondered how much of the bag he’d gone through, and if they’d have to stop even sooner to pick up some more. “It was kind of you to help. It tastes delicious.”

The crew all watches Sanji’s face light up with the compliments, and every bowl ends up scraped clean, except for Zoro’s.

“You didn’t like it?” Sanji asks. Zoro shrugs.

“It was okay, I guess,” he mutters. “Don’t really like sweet stuff.”

“Sorry,” Sanji says. He looks down at his bowl and frowns. “I should have asked first. Maybe I can make you something else?”

“Nah, I’ll finish it,” Zoro says, and he does just that.

It’s a nice, clear night with a gentle breeze pushing them east. Robin heads up to the crow’s nest with Franky’s dinner, and the rest of the crew marches out onto the deck to sprawl out on the grass.

“So, we’re not really kids,” Zoro says, breaking the silence. “We’re adults. Pirates. In your crew.”

“Yup.” Luffy twists his neck in an inhuman way to look at Zoro and grin. “I need the best swordsman in the world to be part of my crew if I’m gonna be the king of the pirates.”

“’Best swordsman,’” Zoro echoes. He looks far away for a moment, lost in his thoughts before grinning viciously. “I am? Not Kuina?”

“Not yet,” Luffy says thoughtfully. “You haven’t beat that hawk guy yet, and he’s suppoesed to be the strongest. But I’m not the Pirate King yet either, so that’s okay.”

“What about me?” Sanji asks quietly. “I’m part of your crew, too?”

“Of course!”

They’re quiet again for a moment. Then, in an even smaller voice, Sanji asks, “What about my brothers? And Reiju?”

“What about them?” Luffy asks.

“They’re stronger than me,” he says. “And faster. They’re better at fighting, too. I’m not the best at anything. They should be on your crew, not me.”

“No way,” Luffy says, laughing. “You’re much better than they are, and you’re the best cook, too!”

“And I get to stay here?” Sanji continues. He reaches up to run his fingers through his hair. “I mean— they let me?”

“You’re not with them anymore,” Luffy assures him. “They don’t get a say in anything you do, not ever again. Not unless you want them to.”

“Why wouldn’t they let you?” Zoro asks, confused. “Even if they say no, you could just run away.”

Sanji continues to comb through his hair, nervously rearranging the strands. “I don’t think I could.”

“Well, then, we’ll help you,” Zoro says simply. “We’re crewmates, so you can rely on us, right?”

“Luffy already stopped the Vinsmokes from taking you away,” Nami adds with a kind smile. “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. And we’ll help you, no matter what you choose.”

“That’s the fun of being a pirate!” Luffy laughs again. “You get to choose. Not them.”

When the boys begin to yawn, Nami sends them with Chopper to get settled in the men’s bunk.

“Are we sailing through the night, Nami?” Robin asks. She shakes her head.

“There’s no need to rush,” Nami says. “As long as we keep watch, we shouldn’t get caught in too much danger. Let’s heave-to and relax for the night. It’s been a long day.”

Together, though more slowly than they usually manage, they pull up the sails. Brook wanders up to the fore deck with his violin, Robin to the aft with a book, for the first watch. The rest of them head off to their bunks for a bit of rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   * zoro and sanji have been de-aged to about 8, which would be soon after zoro meets kuina but before sanji goes to the east blue
>   * this was gonna be a zoro character study but then i got distracted by thinking about how zoro would react to learning about sanji's past after wci
>   * has zoro ever actually talked about kuina to any of the crew or...?
> 



	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Robin gets up early and prepares breakfast for all of them, a simple spread before Sanji can wake up. He looks a little disappointed as he eats, but he sits up excitedly when Zoro asks, “Can you tell us what we’re like as grown-ups?”

Usopp and Robin exchange glances.

“I guess so,” Usopp says hesitantly. “It shouldn’t hurt, right, Robin?”

“I suppose not,” she responds. The boys squirm in their seats, breakfast forgotten in their excitement. “You’ve known them longer than I have.”

“Well, Zoro joined us before Sanji did,” Usopp starts. “You were Luffy’s first crewmate, back in the East Blue.”

“Even before joining, you were well-known as a bounty hunter,” Robin adds.

“Why did I join Luffy, then?” Zoro demands. Usopp shrugs.

“Luffy says he ‘saved you,’ But I don’t really know the specifics,” he says finally. “You got arrested by Marines, I think, and Luffy set you free, so you joined him.”

“What about me?” Sanji asks.

“You joined up after me,” Usopp grins. “We stopped at the Baratie.”

“What’s the Baratie?” both boys ask. 

“It’s a floating restaurant in the East Blue,” Usopp tells them. “The head chef there was a pirate who sailed the Grand Line! He was pretty cool for an old guy.”

“The East Blue,” Sanji repeats, hesitant. “Not the North Blue?”

“Aren’t you from the East Blue?” Usopp asks. Sanji shakes his head. “You don’t remember the East Blue at all?”

“I’ve never been there,” he insists. Then, quieter, “I was at a restaurant? Did I get to cook?”

“Yeah, when you weren’t flirting with any pretty girl who walked in,” Usopp rolls his eyes, but the grin on his face is a fond one. “Your food is amazing! And you can keep up with Luffy’s endless ocean of an appetite, which is even more amazing.”

“But why would I leave a restaurant to become a pirate?” he wonders aloud. “N-Not that being a pirate is bad! It seems like fun! But… I’ve always wanted to be a chef.”

“You have a dream,” Robin says. “You joined us to follow that dream.”

“But how did we get turned into kids?” Zoro asks. “I mean, if I let Luffy be my captain, he’s gotta be pretty strong, right?”

“He is very strong,” Robin confirms, smiling.

“So why’d he let us get turned into kids?”

“He wasn’t with you,” Robin says. “None of us were. You’re both strong enough to handle yourselves, as adults. You, Zoro, had gone looking for a drink and got into a fight with a man who ate a Devil Fruit. Sanji was shopping and saw you in trouble.”

“The Skip-Skip Fruit,” Sanji breathes. “I’ve read about that! If he touches one of us, he could turn us into little kids or old men.”

Usopp nods. “He probably didn’t want to risk you guys still being monsters when you’re old.”

“Monsters,” Sanji echoes.

“Yeah, both of you are crazy strong,” Usopp tells him. “All of us have bounties, but besides Luffy and Jinbei, you guys’re the highest.”

“I should have been able to take him,” Zoro pouts. Sanji is quiet as he stands up, taking their empty plates to the sink.

“Um, you know, my head kind of hurts,” he says with a grimace. “I think that I’ll go lay down again.”

“Do you want me to get Chopper? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” Robin offers, but Sanji just shakes his head.

“I’ll be okay, I’ll just lay down for a while and it’ll go away.”

Robin and Usopp share a concerned glance over Zoro’s head as the door closes gently behind Sanji. Robin excuses herself quietly, leaving Usopp and Zoro alone in the galley.

After breakfast, the crew is surprised at how much energy Zoro has. He spends an hour following Usopp around, asking questions about the sails and rigging and how to steer the ship, then twenty minutes pestering Nami about weather conditions. Another forty minutes is spent helping fish and bugging Luffy about how much he eats. But no matter how much he distracts himself, he can’t stop glancing at the door to the men’s bunks every few minutes.

It’s been two hours since they had breakfast, and Sanji hasn’t come out yet.

Chopper had been in a half an hour ago to check on him, but the adults only whispered about his condition amongst themselves. So when the watch changes at eleven, Zoro finally gets up to check on Sanji himself.

The room is dark and quiet when he enters.

“Sanji?” Zoro whispers. A small shape twitches in one of the hammocks, an erratic movement that he almost misses when the sway of the ocean waves brings it back into sync a moment later. “You still don’t feel good? It’s been ages already.”

“It’s fine,” Sanji lies. “Go away.”

“I’m just trying to be nice,” Zoro hisses. He shoves Sanji’s hammock lightly. 

“I don’t want your pity,” Sanji mumbles into his pillow.

“Then don’t act so pitiful,” Zoro retorts. “Geez, no wonder people call you a monster when we get old.”

“Shut up, go away!” Sanji snaps. He hesitates before adding, “You stupid grass-head, leave me alone!”

“Fine!” Zoro shouts before stomping back out onto the deck. The room is quiet for a moment, and then Jinbei steps out of the shadows in the corner of the room.

“That wasn’t very kind of you, Sanji,” he says disapprovingly. Sanji burrows deeper into his blanket. “He was only checking on you.”

He watches as Sanji grips the roots of his hair tightly, the only part of him visible. He kneels by Sanji’s hammock and pulls the blanket down so they can talk face-to-face.

“We’re all having a rough time,” he says softly. He takes Sanji’s hands and gently untangles them from his hair. “Sometimes, we don’t realize the things we say have the power to hurt others.”

“I don’t want to be a monster,” Sanji tells him. “I don’t want to scare people or hurt anyone, I just want to cook.”

“We cannot help the things people call us, whether in fear or in awe,” Jinbei says, eyes dark with sorrow despite his kind smile. He smooths Sanji’s hair back into place. “But we cannot allow ourselves to be controlled by the thoughts of others. Someone may call you a monster, but you’re only a monster if you let yourself be one.”

Out on the deck, Zoro stomps over to the door of the galley, where his swords still rest against the wall, and throws himself onto the ground besides them.

“You okay?” Nami asks. She crouches down to be at eye-level, but Zoro looks away. “Fighting with Sanji?”

“I was just seeing if he was okay,” Zoro mutters. “He doesn’t gotta be a jerk about it.”

“Both of you have always been hot-headed,” Nami says, chuckling. “You fight all the time, even as adults. But we’re crewmates, and more importantly, we’re friends. Sometimes, friends say things that get taken the wrong way. The only thing we can do is hope that our feelings are understood.”

“He’s still a jerk,” Zoro says, but the fight seems to drain out of him. He relaxes, slouches a little lower.

“Yes, but he’s our jerk. I’m sure you guys can work it out.” She nods over across the deck, where Sanji and Jinbei emerge from the men’s quarters. “Talk it out together, figure out what went wrong. Though, you guys don’t do that very often as adults.”

“Excuse me,” Sanji says, coming to a stop in front of them. “May I speak to Zoro, please?”

“Oh, how polite,” Nami says teasingly. She stands and dusts herself off. “Don’t get into any fist fights, please.”

Sanji waits for her to head up towards the women’s quarters before he sits down next to Zoro.

“I’m sorry I was rude,” he says. It sounds rehearsed. “I didn’t mean to be.”

“You’re a jerk,” Zoro says. “But it’s okay. I probably was a jerk, too.”

Sanji giggles. “A little bit.”

“Why’d you get mad?” Zoro asks. Sanji hums.

“I think,” he pauses, fiddling with the edge of one sleeve. He starts again with, “Usopp said that I was a chef, but then I decided to be a pirate instead. Ever since I was little, all I wanted to do was cook. I finally got to do what I wanted, and I gave that up.

“It’s scary,” he finishes. “And I’m some sort of monster? I can’t even beat my brothers or my sister, but now I’m strong enough to be a pirate? It just seems… wrong.”

“Are your siblings crazy strong or something?” Zoro asks. “I wanna fight them.”

“They’re terrifying,” Sanji whispers. “Compared to them, I’m nothing. I’m weak. I’m a failure.”

“But you’re not,” Zoro says. “Usopp said so. And everyone else, too.”

“That can’t be right,” Sanji insists. “I’m not this person they all think I am! There’s just no way!”

Zoro is quiet. Then he says, “I have a friend, sorta.”

Sanji laughs. Zoro elbows him in the side before continuing. “Shut up. I have a friend, Kuina.”

“Like your sword,” Sanji states. Zoro shakes his head, shooting him a half-hearted glare.

“That’s not the sword’s name, dumbass, it’s her sword,” he says. “Anyways. No matter what I do, I can’t beat her. She beats me every time we fight.”

He looks down at the sword in his lap, running a finger along the hilt.

“I don’t know what happens in the future. Or, well, the past, I guess,” he says. “But all we can do is keep moving forward, right? If we can’t beat them like we are, then we just have to get stronger. That way, no one can stop us. You’ll be a cook and you’ll be able to beat your siblings one day. And I’ll be able to beat Kuina.”

“Do you really think so?” Sanji asks.

“If we can’t do it alone, we can do it together,” Zoro states with no hesitation. “That’s what having friends is for.”

Sanji opens his mouth to say something, but he gets interrupted by a pop. Zoro, now adult-sized, coughs through the sudden plume of smoke surrounding him.

“Ah, I’m back,” he says. He looks up towards the crow’s nest, where Luffy is hanging upside down from the top of the mast, and shouts, “Hey, Luffy, I’m back!”

“Oh, good,” Luffy says, peering down at him and grinning. He points. “There’s a Marine ship over there!”

“Were you ever planning on telling us, you idiot?” Nami shouts. She glances over at Zoro and sighs. “Well, we should be okay, even without Sanji, if we have Zoro back.”

With that, the crew jumps into action, turning the ship towards the Marines. Zoro grabs Sanji by the back of his shirt, intending to throw him into the galley, when there’s another pop and more smoke.

“Oh, now you can fight, too, curly,” Zoro says, and drops him.

“Watch it, moss-head,” Sanji snaps. He stands and dusts himself off. “But I guess I could use a little stress relief.”

Usopp, Chopper and Franky begin with a volley of cannon fire. The Marines fire in kind, but most of the cannonballs miss. Zoro shouts for him, and Sanji launches him into the air with a kick so that he can slice up the only ball that might hit them.

Within minutes, they’re sidled up next to the Marine’s ship, and Luffy launches himself onto their deck, Zoro and Sanji on his heels. Sanji manages to lose himself in the rhythm of the battle, taking down one Marine after the other.

“How many damn small fries do they have in there?” Zoro grunts from behind somewhere behind him. “How do they manage to keep so many people on one ship?”

“Just shut up and keep them off the Sunny, idiot,” Sanji snaps back. It only takes a few minutes before most of the Marines are down. 

Sanji savors the feeling of relief, of finding himself back home after a full day of confusion. He grins. Everything is back to normal.

“They’ve made us late for lunch,” Sanji says offhandedly. Luffy leans over a railing.

“I want meat!” he shouts before rocketing himself over the side of Marine ship and back onto the Sunny.

“Captain’s orders,” Zoro smirks. He runs to the side of the ship, managing to jump back to the Sunny on an upswell, and Sanji follows close behind.

He doesn’t have time to prepare anything fancy. He grills up the fish the crew had caught yesterday, boiling some rice and pulling out some pickled veggies from the fridge. He’s just setting the table when Zoro comes in.

They’re quiet for a while; Sanji finishes plating the dishes while Zoro watches. He’s not totally sure why Zoro is there, but he doesn’t want to be the one to break the companionable silence they’ve found themselves in.

The crew fixes that problem for him, as they one by one find their way into the galley for lunch. 

“I’m glad Sanji is back,” Luffy says through a mouthful of rice, and his heart fills with something warm and content. “It’s weird with Sanji and Zoro both gone.”

“I’m sorry for being so weak,” he bows his head. “It must have been difficult, to have to deal with me as a child.”

“You’re not weak,” Zoro says. Sanji looks up. “You’re not. Look at what you’ve survived. Whatever your jerk family put you through, you’ve still survived until now. You aren’t weak.”

Sanji is shocked for a second. Then he laughs. “You haven’t changed at all, marimo. Even as a kid, always protecting people and saying whatever you think.”

And if there’s one thing that Sanji has learned, it’s this: “I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Zoro ducks his head, embarrassed, but he nods and says, “Yeah. Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hang out with me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/irassal) or [tumblr](http://sa-vunin.tumblr.com) and u can watch me cry about one piece all day


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